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City of Tshwane reconnects schools - Newsroom - 10-11-2014
The City of Tshwane on Sunday reconnected all the schools whose electricity supply was cut-off last week, after the Gauteng Department of Education made a financial commitment to pay for the schools’ municipal debt by end of next week.
The city said last week it took some drastic and unprecedented action to disconnect services to all accounts that are in arrears in a bid to recover R6.5 billion of outstanding debt owed to the municipality.
The municipality is owed money from residences, government entities, schools, Embassies and businesses in the city.
“When the response to our request for payment was not satisfactory, we began the disconnection process and started with 38 of the 140 schools whose accounts are in arrears,†the City of Tshwane said.
The City Manager Jason Ngobeni said he had received a written commitment from the Department of Education in Gauteng to settle schools accounts that are in arrears.
“I have instructed that all the disconnected schools be reconnected by 3pm today after receiving a commitment from the Head of Department and the Chief Financial Officer that the money will reflect in our account by next Friday. I trust their word that the payment will be made.
“Disconnecting schools was the most difficult and painful decision we had to take bearing in mind that the schools are busy with the exams, but we had to bite the bullet and disconnect all the entities that owed us,†Ngobeni said.
Ngobeni said he hoped that there would be no recurrence of a situation which forced the city to disconnect services at schools.
“It’s not a nice thing to cut off anyone, whether it’s a school, residential customers, businesses or government departments, embassies or schools. However, disconnecting electricity seems to be the only viable method to recoup our money,†Ngobeni added.
He added that the city have had a series of engagements with various government departments, entities, other municipalities, businesses and residential consumers weekly, monthly and quarterly through the Government Debt Forum with a view to get them to settle their accounts.
The city said it has so far issued 182 623 green notices and 3 548 red notices across all sectors whose accounts are in arrears, reminding them of their debt and informing them of the disconnection process that would follow suit.
Paid debts
Meanwhile, the city said the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) kept their payment promise, paying a total amount of R2.2 million in the last ten days.
“The city is pleased to announce that there has been an increase in terms of enquiries from entities wanting to have their disconnected power supply restored, settling their arrears and making arrangements, where necessary,†it said.
Warning to owing customers
The city warned that the Madibeng Local Municipality, other government departments, businesses and residential customers are lined up for future disconnections.
It said it had increased manpower on the ground by appointing 30 companies to execute disconnections and reconnections.
“We have also put our debt collectors on terms to fast-track legal actions. Further, we have issued 481 summonses to top 1000 owing accounts.
“We simply can’t continue to efficiently and sustainably administer the capital city of South Africa if the customers do not pay for the services which they consume,†the city added.
The city said, since the Post Office strike, customers claim that they have not been paying their municipal bill because they have not received their accounts.
It advised that customers use the following ways to get information about their latest account:
· Registering online on eTshwane;
· Submitting cellphone details to receive the account via SMS;
· Visiting any of our customer care walk-in centres, and
· Calling the customer care centre on 012 358 9999.
The city said some of the benefits of registering on eTshwane include receiving statements via the upgraded MMS functionality and allows you to pay your account directly from your smart phone. - SAnews.gov.za